The Los Angeles district has voted to impose a complete ban on smartphone use in the city’s public schools.
The decision came at a time when the governor of California, the most populous state in the United States, seeks to ban the use of these devices in school to reduce their impact on students’ mental health.
In Los Angeles, which includes the second largest school district in the country, school administrations will have to develop a plan to prevent the use of cell phones and social media sites throughout the day.
District board member Nick Melvoin, who proposed the ban, said: “Schools that have experimented with banning phones for a full day are achieving amazing results. Children have become happier, they talk to each other, and their educational performance has improved.”
“So I think it’s time to adopt this idea,” he added.
The decision cited research indicating that excessive use of cell phones is linked to increased stress, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, aggressive feelings, and suicidal thoughts among adolescents.
School performance
Studies have also shown an improvement in school performance for students who do not use smartphones.
In the United States, the cradle of social media platforms, there is growing concern about the impact of these platforms on the lives of young Americans.
On Monday, the country’s chief medical officer, Vivek Murthy, signed an editorial in the New York Times, in which he called for warning messages alerting to the danger of social networking sites to users’ health, similar to those placed on cigarette packs.
Murthy called on social media platforms to publish clear warnings to “alert to the significant risks” that the platforms pose “to the mental health of adolescents.”
The doctor pointed out that spending more than three hours a day on social media platforms doubles the risk of causing symptoms related to depression and anxiety in adolescents.
California Governor Gavin Newsom began this article yesterday, Tuesday, to announce his intention to ban the use of smartphones in schools throughout the state.
This bill must first obtain the approval of local parliamentarians in this state, which is dominated by Democrats.
In America, which is witnessing increasing polarization, this issue is a rare point of consensus between the Republican and Democratic parties. In Florida, governed by Newsom’s Republican opponent Ron DeSantis, for example, the state banned the use of smartphones in schools last year.
Similar projects are being worked on in Oklahoma, Kansas, Vermont, Ohio, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.